A lot transpired for Mike Brown over the previous 13 months.
His firing because the Sacramento Kings’ head coach on Dec. 27, 2024, shocked the sports activities world and sparked outrage amongst opposing coaches.
His hiring because the Knicks’ head coach in July adopted a equally sudden parting of the way between that franchise and Tom Thibodeau.
And whereas the Knicks already performed the Kings in Sacramento earlier this month — marking Brown’s first time dealing with his former group — Tuesday evening’s rematch at Madison Sq. Backyard provided one other alternative to mirror on the saga.
Right here’s a glance again at every thing that led to Brown changing into the Knicks’ head coach:
BROWN BEGINS KINGS TENURE
When the Kings employed Brown earlier than the 2022-23 season, the mission was clear.
Sacramento had not been to the playoffs since 2006, nor had it completed with a profitable report even as soon as throughout that time-frame.
Brown arrived with a profitable pedigree. As head coach of the Cleveland Cavaliers, Brown superior to the NBA Finals in 2007 and received NBA Coach of the Yr in 2009.
As an assistant, Brown received an NBA championship with the San Antonio Spurs in 2003 and three extra with the Golden State Warriors in 2017, 2018 and 2022.
Contemporary off of a 32-50 season, the Kings had been anticipating Brown to show issues round.
IMMEDIATE SUCCESS
Brown did simply that, implementing a high-powered offense centered on level guard De’Aaron Fox and ahead Domantas Sabonis that reworked the Kings.
With an emphasis on tempo and 3-point capturing, the Kings averaged an NBA-best 120.7 factors per sport in 2022-23 whereas setting a league report for effectivity at 118.6 factors per 100 possessions.
Sacramento completed 48-34 and because the No. 3 seed within the Western Convention to snap its 16-year playoff drought — the longest in NBA historical past.
The Kings then misplaced their first-round playoff collection in opposition to Brown’s former group, the defending champion Warriors, in seven video games.
Brown was named the NBA’s Coach of the Yr for 2022-23 — and have become the primary to win the award unanimously.
SECOND SEASON IN SACRAMENTO
The win-loss report wasn’t all that completely different in Brown’s second season, because the Kings went 46-36 in 2023-24.
However accidents to Malik Monk and Kevin Huerter derailed the Kings down the stretch, they usually dropped eight of their remaining 13 regular-season video games to complete because the West’s No. 9 seed.
The Kings beat the Warriors within the first sport of the Play-In Event, however they misplaced to the New Orleans Pelicans within the second spherical and missed the playoffs.
CONTRACT EXTENSION
With a 94-70 report via two years, Brown signed a contract extension in July 2024 that may pay him $8.5 million yearly via the 2026-27 season.
Notably, Fox declined to signal an extension that summer time, and later stated on “The Draymond Green Show” that he wished to ensure the Kings confirmed they may proceed to enhance and “compete at a high level.”
THIRD SEASON WITH KINGS
The Kings retooled that offseason by including DeMar DeRozan and re-signing Monk, elevating expectations going into 2024-25.
However the Kings acquired off to a 13-18 begin — together with 3-11 in video games determined by 5 factors or fewer — earlier than they fired Brown lower than seven months after he signed his extension.
Brown completed his Kings tenure with a 107-88 (.549) report.
Sacramento’s determination drew criticism from a number of NBA coaches, with Rick Carlisle saying he was “absolutely shocked,” Steve Kerr calling it “really shocking” and Michael Malone saying the Kings dealt with it with “no class.”
Lower than two months later, the Kings traded Fox to the Spurs.
“I was like, ‘Yo, I’ve been here for going on my eighth year. If Mike gets fired, I’ll be going on my fifth coach,’” Fox informed ESPN in March. “And I told them, ‘I’m not going to play for another coach. I’m going to play for another team.’”
Doug Christie changed Brown as head coach, and the Kings went 27-24 the remainder of the way in which earlier than dropping within the Play-In Event to the Dallas Mavericks.
HIRED BY KNICKS
Lower than six months after his time with the Kings ended, the Knicks’ head-coaching job grew to become open with their firing of Thibodeau.
The Knicks had simply superior to the Jap Convention Finals for the primary time since 2000, however they sought a extra collaborative voice to take them to the following degree.
“We went as far as we did last year,and so you really got to take your hat off to Tom and the job that he did,” Knicks proprietor James Dolan stated this month on WFAN.
“But we did come to the conclusion that we had an idea of how we wanted to organize the team … and that meant we needed to evolve, actually beyond the old traditional coaching formulas, etc. And we tried to work that with Tom. It really wasn’t his thing.”
After an exhaustive month-long teaching search, the Knicks employed Brown.
DIFFERENT DIRECTIONS
The Knicks entered Tuesday with a 27-18 report and, regardless of a current 2-9 hunch, had been the No. 4 seed within the Jap Convention.
They received the NBA Cup final month.
Sacramento, in the meantime, entered Tuesday with a 12-35 report underneath Christie this season and are 39-59 (.398) general since firing Brown.
A kind of wins did come in opposition to the Knicks, 112-101, on Jan. 14 in Sacramento.
Earlier than that sport, Brown acknowledged feeling “a little emotional” about returning to his outdated stomping grounds, although he stated his most important focus was on profitable the sport.
“I can’t control what things are being said,” Brown stated on the time. “Anybody can jump on the internet and post something and to some degree, you may think it’s real. You can’t control that. You’ve just gotta put your head down, keep pushing forward and be the best you can.”
